Photographer’s Favorites from 2011

Wendy — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:51:05 +0000

Ok now folks, don’t get me wrong here. I love you all and every person I photograph is beautiful to me. Really! Everyone has something special about them that makes it a joy to take their picture. That being said, there are some pictures from the past year that just turn out to be my favorites. They are not necessarily the best in a technical sense, but they are just photos that make me want to look at them over and over.

So, here are some of my favorites from my business and personal photography:

And finally one more. My father passed away in July 2011. I miss him.

Just Shoot It! Beginning Photography Class – Practice Images

Wendy — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 21:38:34 +0000

photo by Ellen McBee

photo by Wanda Goss

Here are my images. Waiting to get more from the students, and I’ll post them as they come in. Thanks to my lovely model, Janae!

f4.5, 1/125 sec, ISO 400

f4.8, 1/125 sec, ISO 400

f9, 1/160 sec, ISO 400

f5.6, 1/80 sec, ISO 400

Before and After – My Post Processing Procedure Using MCP Actions

Wendy — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:25:32 +0000

I used to stay away from Photoshop actions in my post processing. I always thought it was cheating. But one day, I discovered MCP Actions and I realized that the picture that took me half and hour to process, could be done in 5 minutes using actions, leaving me more time to shoot or play. One reason I like MCP Actions more than any others I’ve tried, is that they are fully adjustable and my finished product turns out exactly how I want it to, only faster!

I own every set of MCP Actions, but by far my favorite is the newest set, Fusion. In fact, I love it so much that not one of my images get posted for proofing unless they’ve had at least the very basic One Click Color. Of course, I usually can’t stop there, and I go for a bit of sweet light from one of the overlays.

Just to give you an idea of my post processing, I’ve chosen an image from a recent senior session to edit together. Let’s get started!

Here’s the original

As you can see, Lauren is a bit underexposed and there seems to be a bit of a blue cast to the image. I think this was from the grey/black asphalt of the street. Also, she’s not really centered in the image, which is the look I’m going for here. Plus, the sun was hitting that power pole in the left of the background, creating a distraction from my pretty girl. So…

First I crop and get rid of that pole

Then I added 2 curves adjustment layers — one for the color cast and one for the exposure.

Now comes the fun part! I run the MCP Actions Color Fusion Mix and Match action. This gives me the basic One Click Color, plus a whole bunch of options to add color and light overlays.

Gorgeous! Now let’s see how she looks with the Heartfelt overlay.

Yup! that’s nice. But, let’s try another. How about Vanilla Cream?

Ooooh! I think I like that one better. Not quite so much warm and the color of the scarf is redder and not so pink. Of course, I can adjust the results as much as I want, but I think I like this just as is.

Now, Lauren has really awesome skin, but I always like to give my girls’ skin a bit of softness, so I run Powder Your Nose from MCP Action’s Magic Skin set and apply it to Lauren’s face at about 75% opacity. Next, I brighten up her eyes using MCP Action’s Eye Doctor action — sharpen just the colored part of her eyes and lighten the iris.

And the last thing I do is apply a little overall sharpening, and we’re done! Here’s the before and after:

Wendy Mayo Photographer » Samples

Photographer’s Favorites from 2011

Just Shoot It! Beginning Photography Class – Practice Images

Before and After – My Post Processing Procedure Using MCP Actions